I think WIS should have a "Good Samaritan" Credit for every owner that has more than 10 completed seasons. The purpose of this would be to allow experienced users to fill teams in vacant leagues to get the league started and fill "wounded" franchises that have difficulty finding owners (i.e. teams that have max contracts with 3 years remaining on 40 year old players). This credit could be used for any league that the owner is not currently in or previously been a Good Samaritan in. This credit would only be for one year in each league. If the "Good Samaritan" wanted to keep the team he would have to purchase it. After the season is completed the "Good Samaritan" Credit would be restored and the owner would be eligible to use it in another league. Once an owner has used his credit for 20 different leagues, he may use it once again on any league with no restriction. Obviously a Private League does not have to allow the owner into their league.

FWIW, there is some merit to what mirky suggests. In times of need, it probably wouldn't hurt WifS to be a liaison between desperate worlds and established owners to the point of giving away a credit to fill a world. Not sure how effective it would be but it couldn't hurt. A good case study would be ABU. I organized "Save a world" back in S4 of ABU. I think I recruited 14 other owners to fill their world. Most stuck around 2-4 seasons. But ABU is right back where they were. Had those 15 owners been given free teams back ins S4, I think ABU might have had a dozen openings by S6. "Free" = less committment. People HAVE to want to join a world. Being coerced with "free" isn't a solution.

Perhaps a sliding scale of cost? A team that went 1-161 would be free to a new owner for a season then increase over time to the season standard, A team that went 62-100 would cost $10 and increase to standard.

Or just have a WIS employee review the teams open for more than a X number of weeks and offer discounts to new owners.

As a newbie I looked for teams that were about to rollover, but I may have taken a team that needed rebuilding if I was offered the team for 4 years at $10 a year.

Posted by stews_blues on 9/15/2012 10:00:00 AM (view original):Perhaps a sliding scale of cost? A team that went 1-161 would be free to a new owner for a season then increase over time to the season standard, A team that went 62-100 would cost $10 and increase to standard.

Or just have a WIS employee review the teams open for more than a X number of weeks and offer discounts to new owners.

As a newbie I looked for teams that were about to rollover, but I may have taken a team that needed rebuilding if I was offered the team for 4 years at $10 a year.

That's ripe for alias abuse.

I tank my team to get a high draft pick. I leave and come back the next season under an alias for reduced cost. Lather, rinse, repeat. You get to rebuild your franchise without having to pay $24.95 a season.

I've been playing the soccer dynasty since it started. It's free, so owners come and go as they please, cheating is rampant because WIS doesn't bother to pay any attention to aliases because it's free... yes guys cheat at a free game that no one cares about... and WIS doesn't put any development into it because it's free. Only reason I've kept playing is because I've been in a reasonably competitive world... some worlds are almost entirely AI, because the sim will fill worlds with ****** AI teams just to keep playing... but even my world is starting to die now. Because it's free. Many owners who like the game have even asked to pay for it so WIS can maybe pay some attention to it, but apparently it's not worth the effort.

But if you have a rotten banana how much attention do you pay to it if it cost as much as a nice ripe one.

When I was looking at team I was judging how long till I thought they would be at least 500 and how long I thought it would be before the league would rollover.

If you offered me a second team that was 4 seasons away from being anything but a doormat at a discount yes I probably would not work as hard on that team as my first. I would however work on it and after a couple of season (WIS making a little money) it might be competitive. If you only offered me the team at full price I would not buy it.

Also which players that get caught with a bag of dope or in a bar fights or other bag behavior and void their contract could be part of the deal.

I am not saying it should be free, pointless as free online poker (all in every hand). Just give me a little insentive taking on hopeless teams.

The real question is do all teams eventually fill up?? and how quickly. I just hate the idea of eliminating leagues as each league does have a history.

I do think WIS needs to pay some attention to lagging HBD numbers - do *something*; not necessarily credits, but more advertising & promotion, incentives, etc for new users. They don't seem to pay much attention to the product or the sales of the product. I'll try not to read to much into that.